They had completed the 'Hamburger' paragraphs activity (a similar activity but in the shape of a hamburger) but didn't really seem to get it.
Then the teacher, very cleverly, introduced the 'Traffic Light' paragraphs activity.
As the students were still working on their paragraphs while I was there I didn't get to take a photo of their work - but I will try to next time I am there. The above pictures come from Googling 'Traffic light paragraphs'. It seems this activity is very popular and I can see why.
It slows the students down and makes them think of the different types of sentences that go into making up a paragraph. It makes them look at having a topic sentence - to introduce what the paragraph is about, then two supporting sentences and a final concluding sentence.
In the Year 2 classroom the teacher explained the activity and then had the students choose their own topic to write about - so each student had a different topic. They were then given strips of coloured paper (1 green, two orange/yellow and 1 red). They needed to think of a way to introduce their topic and write that sentence onto the green strip of paper. Then they had to come up with two facts about the topic and write each in a sentence on the strip of yellow/orange paper, and finally they needed to come up with a summing up sentence to tie it all together. They then were going to paste them onto a sheet of paper and display them in the room.
I think this is a great activity for all students as it breaks paragraphs down into sentence level and allows the students to really understand how many sentences and what type of sentences make up a paragraph.